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_Daniel BROWN __________|
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|--Nancy BROWN
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|_Temperance HARRINGTON _|
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Obituary of Nancy Brown Hight, in "The Tomb," a column in a Huntingdon
newspaper.
"HIGHT-- At the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Miller, on Washington
street, West Huntingdon, on Thursday last, Mrs. Nancy Hight, in the 88th
year of her age."
"The deceased was, we believe, at the time of her death, the oldest inhab-
itant of the place. A native of the county, born in Henderson township,
and during a great portion of her life a resident of this town, few were
better or more favorably known than "Mother Hight," as she was familiarly
called. She was in many respects, a most remarkable as well as a most
exemplary woman. A vigorous constitution, untiring industry, great
strength of character and steadfastness of purpose were qualities possessed
by her, and retained to remarkable degree up to within some two or three
years of her death, and which so we fitted her for the great life battle
of four score years which has just closed. She was a devoted wife, the
mother of a large family, and lived to see growing up around her her
children and children's children down to the fifth generation. She was
the sister, and some two years the senior of A. H. Brown, esq., of Fair-
field, Iowa, whose visit to this community after an absence of thirty-five
years, we noticed during the early part of the summer, and who, with two
sisters in the West, still survive her. In early life she became a
follower of the Redeemer, and down to the close of her life exhibited a
most ardent zeal in Christian effort, watching for the most useful fields
of labor and whether in the church, in the Sabbath school or at the
bedside of the suffering, she was ever mindful of her duty to others and
to the Master of whom she was a sincere and devoted follower. She was
one of the constituent members of the Baptist church in this place,
assisted in organizing the first Sabbath school, taught the first class,
and shared in all the vicissitudes of its history, while holding up the
banner of the Cross, and contending, for the truth, as revealed in the
scriptures, down to the time when the infirmities of age, and severe and
protracted illness prevented her from active duty in the service of the
Master. The funeral services on Saturday afternoon were conducted by
Rev. Geo. C. Craft, pastor, assisted by Rev. A.G. Dole. In her death
a long life of usefulness, rich in christian love and good works have
closed. Her labors, her tirals and sufferings have ended. She has
crossed the rive in the triumphs of that faith which gives the dying
believer the victory over death. May her christian spirit and exemplary
life bring forth from those who knew her lie fruit to the Master's glory.
M.
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|--Larry CREWS
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_Philip De Courtney, SIR _|
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|--Catherine DE COURTNEY
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|_Unknown _____ ___________|
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|--Bedrick Antone FIALA
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_John KNOX _________
_Russell KNOX _|
| |_Catherine STEWART _
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|--Marvin J. KNOX
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| _Bristol HALL ______
|_Olive HALL ___|
|_Jane GORDON _______
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|--Zilpah KRUTSINGER
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|--Robert Harvey LOOMIS
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|--Jacob VANDEVER
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"Jacob Van der Weer, was a Dutch soldier, and assisted in the capture of Fort
Christina from the Swedes in 1655. (This was the army of Peter Stuyvesand from
the New Netherlands-- New York.) This Fort was built by the Swedes in 1638,
when they first made a settlement in Delaware, and was located on the South
side of Christina Creek, near 'The Rocks,' in the yard of the McCullough Iron
Works, near the Old Swede Church in Wilmington."
"Around this Fort fifteen or twenty houses were clustered when the Dutch
captured the settlement. By them the name was changed to Fort Altena, and a
little town laid out West of the Fort, called Christianham, now Wilmington."
"Jacob Van der Weer was a Sergeant in the garrison at Fort Altena, and 1660
he made application for his discharge in the Spring, upon the ground that 'he
desires to leave with the first vessel after the river is opened.' It was
his intention to command a vessel to be used in trading along the coast, but
he seems to have changed his mind. He did not leave the country, for on
April 8, 1661, he obtained a Deed for a lot of ground in Christianham, near
the Fort. In 1664 Fort Altena was captured by the English, and the country
passed under their government. The Fort was permitted to go to ruin, and
the town was abandoned. The land was laid out into five large tracts, and
on March 24, 1668, Jacob Vand der Weer received a patent and settled on a
tract of land North of the Brandywine, and erected a house on the site of
Pickel's Foundry, near which the family resided within the past fifty years.
In a 'roll of all the men, women, and children which are found and still live
in New Sweden on the Delaware River,' returned the Duke of York's Court in
Upland in November, 1677, we find the following census of the Van der Weers
then paying taxes, viz: Jacob Van der Weer, seven in family; and William
Van der Weer. (This William Van der Weer is doubtless the ancestor of the
North Carolina and South Carolina branch, whose name appears as such in a
family tree found in North Carolina.)"
"Opposite old Fort Christina, in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware, there was a
tract of high ground, which in 1653 was called 'Cooper's Island,' by reason
of two Dutch Coopers living there, who made barrels and casks. In March,
1682, Jacob Van der Weer obtained a warrant for this land, containing 147
acres, which included the small island, which was ever afterwards known as
Vand der Weer's Island. This island appears to have been a neck of land
where the railroad bridge now crosses, and the Van der Weer house is indicated
in the early records as being close to Brandywine Creek. It was at this place
that the Upland Court, on May 13, 1675, ordered a 'ferry to be maintained,'
and four year afterward, in 1679, the Court directed 'the road to ye ferry'
to be established. The ferry across the Brandywine was conducted by Jacob
Van der Weer and his heirs until a very early period, when they built a
bridge near the present Eleventh Street bridge in Wilmington, and charged
a toll for crossing it. The Assembly of Delaware in 1764 authorized the
erection of a bridge higher up the Brandywine, where the road provided for
in the Act of 1752 was intended to cross. The Vandever bridge was ordered
destroyed after the erection of the new bridge, erected on the site of the
present Market street bridge, but it was in use in 1767."
"The Swedes and Dutch, under the English in Delaware, were to remain upon
their lands, and were quietly in possession when William Penn assumed
authority in October, 1682. Courts were organized in November following,
and Penn took measures to bring the foreign population under English
citizenship. At a Court held at New Castle on the 21st and 22nd of
February, 1683, at which Penn was present, a form of naturalization was
adopted, and among those who took the oath of allegiance was Jacob Van der
Weer, (now spelled Vanderveer,) and Cornelius Vanderveer. On May, 1684,
Jacob Vandeveer recived a warrant for another tract of land, and this,
together with all the previous tracts which he had purchased, was re-surveyed
on April 6, 1688, and found to contain 532 acres, including the marsh. The
map of survey shows the land to be bound on the Southeast by Shellpot Creek
on the Northwest by Brandywine Creek, and on the other sides by the lands
of Hans and Usin Peterson."
"The Vanderveer tract embraced Brandywine Village, the settlement above
Eleventh street bridge, on the East side, where an old Vandiver farm house
stood in 1888. The elevations on this tract are known as 'Timber Island,'
'Thatcher's Hook,' &c. This large tract was for over one hundred and fifty
years in the hands of the Vandivers, when it was sub-divided and passed
into the possession of many owners."